ASUS N61JQ Drivers to reinstall

G'day to all,
Had major Problems with the HDD on my ASUS N61JQ laptop, and after changing the hard drive, I was gutted to find that the set of recovery DVD's I made, when I bought it, didn't restore the original software.

After an awful lot of reading and posting I finally have a Windows 7 Install now in place and from the ASUS website I have installed Drivers to improve the image on the screen, USB 3, and Realtek.

However, there are quite a few other things that are missing that enhance Windows, but from what I've read, to get optimal performance from Windows 7 to avoid just loading anything and everything in the way of ASUS drivers.

Not being skilled enough to know what drivers and software will be resource hogs, can someone advise what software I should load to return the laptop to its former glory.

The pushbuttons along the top left side of the keyboard don't work, the web camera has no software I can find to be able to invert the image shown on screen from the camera. and the graphics that use to show if the WiFi switch was on or off doesn't work either. I know in most cases these options are only cosmetic and I could probably do without, but if they're not hoggers of the system I'd like to restore them.

I know there's a link on this forum, for what are I guess the lastest updates for drivers to the N61JQ, but as I said I'd like to get advice on what ones I should install.

Sorry for the long winded post, and I hope someone has the time to chime in with some advice.

Cheers Ron

 

Not sure for your specific machine but having used ASUS for the last 5 years I can tell you this about the order of things:

1. OS
2. Chipset
3. Then the rest... ASUS FTP site for drivers if you want them (don't have a link).

That little 1,2,3 kicked my butt for a few weeks one time, never forgot it.

Generally you don't need much of what they offer. I would do steps 1 and 2 then let Windows do the rest. If you need extra functionality (I'm guessing you have a separate Fn shift key) then add them as you need them.

If you use Spybot or Ccleaner you can always disable startup things to save processing power.

 

G'day Ed thanks for the reply,
Having the ability to be able to download and install various drivers is okay, but not knowing the specific ones to use is the drama. I've just got everything working fine now, and I'm reluctant to just take a punt a guess as to which driver to install, in case I pick the wrong one and it screws things up. There were about 4 software items listed for the ATI driver for the display. I don't want the system and registry filled up with hit and miss installations and other assorted rubbish.

So any advice on where to go to get specific advice on what to use?

Cheers Ron

 

After OS and chipset, if you have discrete GPU (which I think you do) then that should come third.

After these three I wouldn't add anything as Windows does it all, on my machine it does a fair job too. All the "Realtek", Wifi, and other bits I never bother with it. If you can be bothered, what I did was a couple of installs experimenting with the stuff I wanted. After a point I decided that my above solution of OS, Chipset and GPU was enough. I also added the keyboard extension to enable FN overlay.

If you want to ask more specifics though you need someone who really owns the machine:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/asus-n61jq-owners-lounge.456659/

This is the thread for you... hope this helps.

 

Thanks for your advice Ed. I will see if I can get someone to advise what drivers to use for my N61JQ, although it's really confusing to determine which ones to select from the lists displayed.

Normally my gut feeling would be to go for the latest version, but I'm sure the hardware in my laptop would only be compatible with one or two of the revised drivers shown. So I need a bit more information on what info I need to supply in order to download the most appropriate driver. I've just got things humming along nicely, and don't want to screw things up with incorrect driver choices!

Cheers Ron